Teen Charged After Father Found Dead

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Oneida County, NY - When one first looks at the face of this boy, you see a 13-year old eighth grader who seems like most other boys of his age with one difference. He's being charged with second degree murder. The teen pled not guilty at his arraignment Thursday in Oneida County Court.

On Jan. 24, 2008, court documents (opens as a PDF) show the teen had gone to school at the usual time and the bus dropped him off at 2:35 p.m. He went into the house, going on to write,

"I saw my dad on the couch. He was lying on the couch on his back. I saw red blood on him and a hole on his face. He was under a blanket from his feet to his shoulders. His face was turned toward the back of the cushion and the hole was in the left side of his face."

The teen goes on to say that his father was breathing and making a noise in his throat as if he was trying to say something. It was then, he called 9-1-1.

The emergency dispatcher told the teen to do CPR, but the teen said he

"didn't want to touch him"

and later said to the police that he didn't go near his dad because he didn't want to get messy.

When police questioned the teen, he initially told them he had not seen a gun nor had he touched any guns since the last time they had been hunting. He later retracted that statement after police told him the guns would be checked for fingerprints, saying,

"I found the .410 shotgun on the floor on the other side of the dog gate by the gun cabinet… I picked it up and went over to the gun cabinet and put it back inside where it belonged. I got the key for the cabinet... I unlocked it and put the gun back inside. “

Oneida County Assistant District Attorney Kurt Hameline had this to say about the teen,

"First of all he's taken no responsibility for this situation. It's an extremely aggravated situation. a 13-year-old killing his father, shooting him in the head with a shotgun."

Upon further digging, a blog posted by Matt Mulcahy, who is one of WSTM employees, wrote,

"The only evidence being revealed by police and prosecutors comes in court papers which include statements...how Joey dialed 911 for help, but was afraid to go near his father. The statements are not written in Joey's hand, but he does initial or sign the first two with the sloppy hand writing of a middle school boy."

Mulcahy went on to point out the teen did not sign a third statement, which was taken in the presence of his mother, Rachelle Rustici. He wrote,

"Unlike his first interview Joey was now admitting that he returned his father's shotgun to the gun cabinet. This was the first his mother heard him say that and immediately stopped the interview at that time."

Now, Rustici is claiming that the police are framing the teen because he is the only suspect that the police have.

As for the autopsy report, it says that this was not a suicide.

The teen will be tried as an adult and is currently being held in a juvenile detention center.

And of right now, there doesn't seem to be a motive.